Tri-color LEDs target mobile devices

Palo Alto, Calif.  Featuring one of the industry's smallest package sizes, Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced two side-firing, tri-color, surface-mount LEDs housed in a miniature 2.5 x 1.0 x 1.0-mm package. Designed primarily for backlighting and as status indicators in handheld devices such as mobile phones and PDAs, these new devices allow handset and PDA designers to mix separate red, green and blue light sources in any combination.

The company said the availability of an unlimited range of illumination colors provides a new degree of design flexibility for many handheld devices as well as other applications such as backlighting and status indication in office and industrial equipment and home appliances.

"Our new side-firing, tri-color LEDs give manufacturers more backlighting color options in an ultra-miniature package," said Cheng Kai Chong, worldwide marketing manager for the Optoelectronic Products Division in Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group, in a statement. "They also enable status indicators to display any color desired for executing different tasks. These new devices add to Agilent's extensive product portfolio, giving customers a one-stop-shop solution for their illumination requirements."

The HSMF-C113 and HSMF-C115 side-firing tricolor chip-type LEDs feature a four-terminal common anode connection. In the ChipLED devices, the package is mounted vertically, with the light emitting through a lens on the side rather than on the top of the package. This simplifies the coupling of the light to a light pipe for backlighting mobile phones, PDA keypads and LCD screens.

The HSMF-C113 is priced at $0.58 each, and the HSMF-C115 is priced at $1.00 each, both in quantities of 1,000. The ChipLED devices are shipped with EIA481-compliant standard packaging (8-mm carrier tape on 7-inch diameter reel and sealed in moisture barrier bags).